Amazon's Mobile Offerings Now Include Separate, Tailored Shopping
Experiences for Customers Who Want to Shop Using Text Messaging or the
Browser on Their Mobile Phone or iPhone
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2008--Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
today launched Amazon TextBuyIt, a new service that lets customers use
text messages to find and buy products sold on Amazon.com. With the
addition of TextBuyIt to Amazon's existing mobile offering, including
its mobile site and mobile iPhone site, customers can now shop,
compare prices, and buy from Amazon.com virtually anywhere they are,
with any mobile device, using either text messages or their mobile
device's web browser.
"With today's launch of TextBuyIt, any Amazon.com customer can now
use any mobile device to shop and buy from Amazon.com, at anytime,
anywhere they are," said Howard Gefen, Director of Amazon Mobile
Payments. "With TextBuyIt, if you're walking out of a concert and want
to buy a CD from the artist you just saw, or if you're at dinner and a
friend tells you about a great book you should read, all you have to
do is get out your mobile device, send a text message to Amazon, reply
to the response, confirm your order, and your item will be on its way.
It's incredibly simple and convenient."
In less than a minute and using only text messages, Amazon.com
customers can find the product they are looking for and complete a
purchase using TextBuyIt. Simply send a text message to "AMAZON"
(262966) with the name of the product, search term or a UPC or ISBN
code, and, within seconds, Amazon replies with the product or products
that match the search, along with prices. To buy an item, customers
simply reply to the text message by entering the unique single digit
number next to the item they want. Customers will then receive a short
phone call from Amazon with the final details of their order and
asking them to confirm or cancel the purchase.
When customers choose to purchase something for the first time
using TextBuyIt, they will be asked for their e-mail address and
shipping ZIP code they use for their Amazon.com account. With this
information, Amazon uses customers' default settings for payment
method, shipping address and shipping speed, including 2-Day shipping
for Amazon Prime members.
TextBuyIt is the latest in a series of mobile offerings for
Amazon.com customers. For several months, Amazon.com has been adding
more features and enhancing the functionality of its mobile website
for customers who want to shop using the browser on their mobile
phone. Today, the same Amazon.com shopping features customers enjoy
from their PCs are available from their mobile devices, including
1-Click, Prime, Customer Reviews, Wish Lists, Search and stored
payment and shipping options. These customers simply go to
www.amazon.com using the browser on their mobile device where they are
automatically redirected to a site optimized for mobile. Customers use
the exact same login, payment, and shipping information as they do on
the PC. In recent months, Amazon.com customers have used their mobile
devices to purchase everything from books, to big screen HDTVs to
$30,000 watches using Amazon's mobile website.
Additionally, last fall Amazon.com released an experience
customized for iPhone users. Just like with the Amazon.com experience
optimized for mobile devices, when iPhone users type www.amazon.com
into their browser, they will be taken to an interface that is
optimized for the iPhone and where all the same shopping features they
enjoy on their PC are available. The site is tailored to the iPhone's
screen size, keyboard, and browser capabilities and is designed to let
customers find and buy what they are looking for quickly and easily.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in
Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers
Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc., seeks to be Earth's most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover
anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its
customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers
offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories
such as books, movies, music & games, digital downloads, electronics &
computers, home & garden, toys, kids & baby, grocery, apparel, shoes &
jewelry, health & beauty, sports & outdoors, and tools, auto &
industrial.
Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with
access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own
back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable
virtually any type of business. Examples of the services offered by
Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2),
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon
Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service
(Amazon FPS), and Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including
www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, and the Joyo Amazon websites at
www.joyo.cn and www.amazon.cn.
As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms
include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context
indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ
significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others,
risks related to competition, management of growth, new products,
services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating
results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and
claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial
agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange
rates, system interruption, significant amount of indebtedness,
inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud.
More information about factors that potentially could affect
Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, and
subsequent filings.
CONTACT:
Amazon.com
Media Hotline, 206-266-7180
SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.
